An extension of E. Bishop's localization theorem (Q5931945)

Let \(K\) be an arbitrary compact set in the complex plane. Denote by \(B(K)\) all bounded functions on \(K\) belonging to the Baire first class, that is \(B(K)= \{f: f(z)\) is bounded on \(K\) and there exist \(f_n(z)\in C(K)\) such that \(\lim_{ n\to\infty}f_n(z)=f(z)\) on \(K\}\). We also set \(BR(K)=\{f\in B(K):\) there exist rational functions \(r_n\) with poles outside \(K\) which are uniformly bounded on \(K\) and \(\lim_{n\to\infty}r_n(z)=f(z)\) on \(K\}\). The authors prove that if \(f\) is a function belonging to \(B(K)\) and each point \(z\) of \(K\) has a neighborhood \(U_z\) with the property that the restriction \(f|_{K\cap\overline{U}_z}\) is in \(BR(K\cap\overline{U}_z)\). Then \(f\in BR(K)\); more precisely, there exist rational functions \(r_n\) with poles outside \(K\) such that \(||r_n||\leq ||f||\) for all \(n\) and \(\lim_{n\to\infty}r_n(z)=f(z)\) on \(K\}\). As an application the authors establish a ``poinwise'' version of Mergelyan's classical theorem on uniform approximation by rational functions on compact sets for which the components of its complement have diameters greater than a fixed positive number.